Brawlhalla Hands-On At Pax East

Steve Tyminski lives in the great state of New Jersey and is a huge sports fan, especially the Devils/Mets/Jets. He went to college for Criminal Justice and History and has journalism experience. Been a Nintendo Guy for a long as he can remember and grew up with the Mario Brothers. His sense of humor comes out in his writing. Twitter-Follow at https://twitter.com/TumsST

 Published March 13, 2017 8:45 PM

Only the best of the best are allowed entry into Brawlhalla!

I was lucky enough to get some time with Brawlhalla, the free-to-play fighting game that people will want to get a look at. It is playable on Steam and is coming to PlayStation 4 near the end of April so be on the lookout for it then. At first glance, one could say Brawlhalla is just another Super Smash Brothers clone but it’s so much more than that.

To start, only the best of the best are allowed entry into Brawlhalla and what that means is only the best “legend” characters are allowed into the hollowed halls of Brawlhalla. Like a typical fighting game, each legend has their own fighting style and their own weapons. There will be 6 legends to play as a week to start but the more you play, the more you’ll be able to unlock. Updates are planned every week so there is always something new to play and discover!

Legends are also able to attack with weapons and these weapons change their move set. You could be fighting with an axe one minute and then throw it at your opponent and then pick up a sword and use that for the duration of the match. You will need to use everything you have to win these matches because your opponent is going to be doing the same thing.

It’s an epic fight using skill and speed. One interesting note is that if you’re falling off the world, try and get to a platform and you can perform a wall-jump type jump to save yourself. Players who are familiar with Smash Brothers rules might think you’re stuck after the two jumps you get to try and save yourself from self-destruction.

The over-the-top animation for the Legends fits the game perfectly as the characters range from a Viking, an alien, a cowgirl, a mobster, and the newest Legend to the Brawlhalla family, Modex the Werewolf. He’s an icy Knight, sort of like a dark figure of the North Wind with ice powers.

Zeke Sparkes, the Executive Producer of Brawlhalla that I spoke with, said the fans have been clamoring for a Werewolf for quite sometime. He was teased in lore/legends of other characters in the past but the time wasn’t right for a werewolf fighter. Modex uses a scythe to fight with but there aren’t real combos for the scythe. You do have more control over where your opponent is because there is more attack range on the scythe. Since he has ice powers, the scythe can become a powerful ice shard scythe and that could be the difference in battle, if you know how to wield it properly.

He also has an attack mechanic called an “active input” mechanic.” What that means is that you decide the end result of Modex’s attacks/moves depending on if you’re holding forward on the control stick or have a weapon to with. Modex is the first Legend of Brawlhalla to have the active input mechanic but only time will tell if/when more legends will receive it.

I mentioned before that the game will be updated every week and there will be plenty of new things coming to the game. There will be new maps to fight on, complete with four player and eight player versions. There will be new game modes being brought into Brawlhalla. One that I’d like to mention would be the Brawl of the Week mode.

The Brawl of the Week gameplay mode could be any gameplay mode and the goal is to give other gameplay modes that would get overlooked otherwise more of a look. During the hands-on, we played Brawl Ball, which for those who don’t know is Brawlhalla’s version of Football. A football appears at center court and the two teams try to get it to their appropriate end zone. You play to five and I came out on top 5-4. Zeke said I was the first one to beat them at Brawl Ball so I took some pride in that and had to mention it here!

Brawlhalla is already out, free-to-play, on Steam and is targeted to be released on PlayStation 4 at the end of April. It’s one of those fighting games that might looks totally different the next time you play if you don’t play for a few weeks because they developers are working hard to keep it fresh and the best it can be!